Baseball player, Hall of Fame broadcaster Joe Garagiola dies at 90
Joe Garagiola, the baseball player turned Hall of Fame broadcaster, died Wednesday after a long illness. He was 90.
Growing up in St. Louis, he was childhood friends with Yogi Berra, and was catcher for the 1946 St. Louis Cardinals, winning a World Series during his rookie year. After nine seasons, Garagiola retired at 28, and began his broadcasting career, calling Cardinals games on the radio. Garagiola eventually wrote books, guest hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, hosted several game shows (To Tell the Truth, Sale of the Century, Joe Garagiola's Memory Game), and was a broadcaster for NBC and NBC Sports.
From 1967 to 1973 and 1990 to 1992, he was a panelist on the Today show, and host Matt Lauer tweeted Wednesday he will miss Garagiola, calling him "part of the soul of our show" and able to tell stories that made him "laugh till I cried." Garagiola was awarded the Baseball Hall of Fame's top honor for broadcasters in 1991, and in 2014, received the Buck O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award for positive contributions to Major League Baseball, Variety reports. He is survived by his wife, Audrie, three children, and eight grandchildren.
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